New US rules could overturn Nuremberg Code

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued new regulations allowing medical researchers to perform experiments on some patients without their permission.

The new rules overturn an ethical standard established 50 years ago in the Nuremberg Code. The code forbade forced medical experimentation and decreed that “the voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential.”

The revised regulations stipulate that the enrolled patients must have a life threatening condition and …